NGSG celebrates fabricating 2000 compressor units

Published 4:45 pm, Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Employees, vendors and other special guests gathered at Natural Gas Services Group's fabrication center off Business 20 had a double reason to celebrate.

Guests gathered to mark completion of the company's 2,000th compressor unit for its rental fleet. Completion of the unit also means the Midland-based company now has the third largest rental fleet in the nation as ranked by the Gas Compressor Association. The company had ranked fourth and now comprises more than 10 percent of the total units owned by rental fleet operators - 2,000 units out of a total of 19,091 units.

Those 2,000 units, said Steve Taylor, the company's president and chief executive officer, represent $200 million in capital spent in Midland over the past 10 years. Furthermore, he said, it meant the company was able to expand its fleet despite a sharp downturn in natural gas prices over the last two years.

"We didn't set out to build 2,000 compressors," he said during the celebration. "We set out to build and rent high quality compression equipment."

Taylor gave credit for the company's success to the suppliers who provide the components for the compressors, 90 to 95 percent of which are fabricated at the facility between Midland and Odessa, and to the company's customers.

"But really the employees are where it starts," he said. "The credit goes to those who spent their time building them, selling them and servicing them."

He continued, "We are in the energy industry and we're in the manufacturing business and both are critical pieces of our nation's economy," and he lamented the fact that "manufacturing seems to be a lost art in this country."

Founded in 1998, the company went public in 2002. By 2004 it had fabricated 500 units and reached the 1,000 unit milestone in 2006. Natural Gas Services Group maintains a growing rental fleet of high quality rotary screw and reciprocating wellhead compressors in the 50-500 horsepower range. It is the largest rental compressor fleet in the nation dedicated to the small to medium horsepower wellhead market.

In addition to its corporate headquarters in downtown Midland and fabrication facility between Midland and Odessa, the company has district offices in Midland, Bridgeport and Godley, in Farmington, N.M., Vernal Utah, Tulsa and Lewiston, Mi., including the Appalachian and South Texas regions. Another fabrication facility is in Lewiston. The company's engineered products line in Tulsa custom-engineers rotary screw and reciprocating compressor packages that can be powered by natural gas engines or electric motors and ranges up to 2,500 horsepower per unit. The company also designs, manufactures and fabricates its proprietary Cylinders in Plane reciprocating compressor, an efficient small horsepower design utilized in the rental fleet and sold to packagers, distributors and end-users throughout North America. Its Flare King product line of industrial flare and ignition systems is sold for use in onshore and offshore oil and natural gas production facilities.

In addition to its corporate headquarters in downtown Midland and fabrication facility between Midland and Odessa, the company has district offices in Midland, Bridgeport and Godley, in Farmington, N.M., Vernal Utah, Tulsa and Lewiston, Mi., including the Appalachian and South Texas regions. Another fabrication facility is in Lewiston. The company's engineered products line in Tulsa custom-engineers rotary screw and reciprocating compressor packages that can be powered by natural gas engines or electric motors and ranges up to 2,500 horsepower per unit. The company also designs, manufactures and fabricates its proprietary Cylinders in Plane reciprocating compressor, an efficient small horsepower design utilized in the rental fleet and sold to packagers, distributors and end-users throughout North America. Its Flare King product line of industrial flare and ignition systems is sold for use in onshore and offshore oil and natural gas production facilities.